United States Statutes at Large/Volume 4/20th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 86
Chap. LXXXVI.—An Act authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.
Secretary of the Treasury in the name of the United States, to subscribe for 10,000 shares of the capital stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.
Proviso.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United States, for ten thousand shares of the capital stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, and to pay for the same, at such times, and in such proportions, as shall be required of and paid by the stockholders, generally, by the rules and regulations of the company, out of the dividends which may accrue to the United States upon their bank stock in the bank of the United States: Provided, That not more than one fifth part of the sum, so subscribed for the use of the United States, shall be demanded, in any one year, after the organization of the said company; nor shall any greater sum be paid on the shares so subscribed for, than shall be proportioned to assessments made on individual or corporate stockholders:Proviso. And provided, moreover, That, for the supply of water to such other canals as the state of Maryland, or Virginia, or the Congress of the United States, may authorize to be constructed, in connection with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the section of the said canal leading from the head of the Little Falls of the Potomac river, to the proposed basin, next above Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, shall have the elevation, above the tide of the river at the head of the said falls, and shall preserve, throughout the whole section aforesaid, a breadth, at the surface of the water, of not less than sixty feet, and a depth, below the same, of not less than five feet, with a suitable breadth at bottom.
Secretary of the Treasury to vote for president, &c., of said company, according to the number of shares purchased for the United States.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said Secretary of the Treasury shall vote for the president and directors of the said company, according to such number of shares as the United States may at any time hold in the stock, thereof, and shall receive, upon the said stock, the proportion of the tolls which shall, from time to time, be due to the United States for the shares aforesaid; and shall have and enjoy, in behalf of the United States, every other right of a stockholder in the said company.
Approved, May 24, 1828.